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A Second Memorial 



OF 



HENRY WISNER 

BY 

Franklin Burdge, 
3/25 west 57t11 street, 

NEW YORK. 



200 COPIES PRINTED. 



MAY, 1898. 



Nothing of the Memorial of 1878 is here reprinted 
except to correct errors and to make new statements 
intelligible. 

According to Capt. 0. B. Dalilgren, whose wife is a 
descendant of Henry Wisner, Johannis Wisner, the 
Swiss soldier, was 38 years old when he arrived in 
America early in 1714. His son Adam was not born on 
the sea voyage, as stated by Judge William Thompson, 
but was (accordmg to a document possessed by Harrison 
W. Nanny) S6 years old in 1785, and remembered his 
first sail up the Hudson with Capt. Phillips. He learned 
the Indian language and served as interpreter. 

Johannis Wisner prospered in Orange Co., and in 
1732 bought a farm of 150 acres of Barent Bloom, which 
went by his will to his daughter Mary, wife of Joseph 
Barton. His original farm of 100 acres, at Mount Eve, 
went to Adam Wisner. Perhaps it is partly the farm 
now owned by Frank Houston. An adjoining farm to 
the South of 50 acres, ''near a place called Florida," was 
conveyed by a deed (now possessed by Mr. Nanny ) from 
Samuel Clowes to Hendrick Wisner, March 12, 1715. As 
according to Capt. Dahlgren, Hendrick lived from 1698 
to 1767, probably his father Johannis paid for this farm. 
It was, apparently, here that his son Henry Wisner 
was born in 1720, in the present town of Warwick, and 
the old precinct of Goshen. Precincts were political 
divisions like our modern towns, but much larger. 

Hendrick Wisner made two purchases of land in 
Cioshen townsliip in 1726, and one in 1733. This town- 
shi}), which had no political character except that of 
being a centre for the precinct, was of rectangular 
shape and contained about 20 square miles. It was, 
therefore, much smaller than the present town of 



(xosheu, and much larger than the present incorporated 
village. Running through it, parallel to its shorter 
sides, and dividing it unequally, was a load nearly four 
miles long, now represented by Main Street and the 
West Florida road as far as Mount Look Out. Hen- 
drick Wisner lived in the part northwest of the main 
road, which part was about two miles wide. 

According to Henry Wisner's cousin, .Judge William 
Thompson, "The country being new and few schools, 
the education of the children was but barely common. 
Henry, however, as he grew up discovered strong, nat- 
ural talents and an insinuating address." Remarried 
in 1739 a daughter (Sarah or Mary) of George Norton 
and Mary Helmes, of Brookhaven, Suftolk Co. The 
Nortons are said to have been remarkable for tiieir dark 
complexion, physical activity, mental vigor and excit- 
able temperament. The family came to Long Island 
from New England and traces it s origin to one of the 
followers of AVilliam the Conqueror, the Lord de Nor- 
ville, time having translated the last syllable. 

Old deeds mention several mysterious divisions of 
Goshen township. In "the southwest divisions" — near 
Hendrick, his father, and John, his brotlun — lay Henry 
Wisner's first farm. It was composed of 33 acres, 
bought of Daniel Cooley, for £'40. in 1741, and 52 acres 
for which he gave his father the same sum in 1743. The 
situation is, apparently, on the ci'ossroad to Dentoi], 
which starts from the West Florida road, two miles 
from Goshen Court House. 

The farmers in this quarter depended laigely for 
support of their stock on the drowned lands of the 
VVallkill. They began in New Jersey, but extended live 
miles in New York to a gorge with a rocky bed called 
the outlet, because the river flowed there with a per- 
ceptible current, while above in New York its bed had 



scarcely any descent. The outlet was sutHcient for only 
the ordinary stream. In spring freshets and protracted 
summer storms the water from the many surrounding 
hills poured into the full and sluggish river and spread 
over the wide tracts of low country bordering it and its 
tributaries, converting over 20,000 acres into marsh and 
sometimes into a lake for weeks at a time. This fertil- 
ized the laud but interfered with its use and caused 
fever and ague. 

The farmers' boys in summer watched the cattle 
feeding on these rich but treacherous meadows and 
warned their owners in time to drive them to the up- 
lands ; and sometimes the water rose so rapidly that they 
could come only in boats. Some eminences, still called 
islands, a survival of a once appropriate name, fur- 
nished the cattle a temporary refuge. One of many 
useful letters received from Jeremiah M. Pelton says : 
"I still believe that few cows were there pastured, for 
two reasons : first, the stickiness of the black soil to the 
udders of the cows would be tionblesome to the milkers, 
and the swarms of flies and mosquitoes would harass 
the cows too much. I think as before that the cattle 
would be principally young heifers and steers." These 
farmers were prosperous, as cattle, butter and cheese 
found a sure market in New York City, which was 
reached by boat from New Windsor. 

In 1Y53 Wisner bought 600 acres at Greycourt for 
£300. Eleven years later he discovered a mistake in the 
deed and revealed it to the parties injured and made 
them satisfactory compensation. Wi&ner was a large 
])urchaser of land, speculatively, and frequently ne- 
glected to record his deeds, and some of them are not 
now to be found. 

When, in 1604-, New Jersey was taken from New 
York the deed fixed the eastern end of the boundary at 



41 degrees latitude on Hudson River and the western 
end "to the northward as far as the northermost 
hranch of the said l)ay or river of Delaware, which is in 
41 degrees 40 minutes of latitude.'" On the Hudson the 
latitude is expressly made the boundary end. If the 
latitude given for the Delaware end had been intended 
itself for the boundary it woidd not have been intro- 
duced by the word "which,'' and it would hardly have 
descended to minutes, a particularity which implies an 
effort to suit some natural feature. The latitude is. 
therefore, merely descriptive of the branch. But the 
branch cannot, as described, be found in nature or mod- 
ern maps. It is found, however, in Visscher's map, 
wherein a river enters the Delaware from the west, in 
latitude 41 degrees 40 minutes. It must be meant for 
the Lehigh, as the Lehigh and the Schuylkill are the 
only western tributaries of any size, and the former is 
not elsewhere on the map. According to Vanderdonck, 
the Delaware River above the Lehigh was unknown. 
His map is like Visscher's, but gives no' latitudes. 

It seems clear that the place the Duke of York des- 
ignated is what is commonly called the Forks of the 
Delaware, though the deed describes it one degree too 
far north, probably because the map maker took his 
miles from the boatmen and made his liver bend too 
little. If the legal rule preferring designated bounds to 
quantitative descriptions applies to places located erron- 
eously by the map followed, a legal interpretation of 
the Jersey deed would put into New Yoi'k all north of a 
line from Tappan to Easton in 40 degrees 40 minutes, 
as was done by Vaugondy's map. 

In 16S6 the surveyors of both provinces favored 
New Jersey by fixing the western boundary station at 
41 degrees 40 minutes on the upper Delaware (also 
called the East Branch and the Fishkill), assuming that 



*'as far as," meant up and on. But no boundary 
line was run. The patent of Wawayanda, granted by 
New York in 1703, about covered the present towns of 
Goshen, Wawayanda, Minisink and Warwick, and ex- 
tended to the Jersey Kne, without saying where that 
was. But the Minisink patent of 1704 expressly ex- 
tended to the south end of Great Minisink Island, which 
is in the Delaware Eiver in latitude about 41 degrees 
17 minutes. On the principle of splitting the difference, 
the line from there to Tappan was a fair compromise 
between 40 degrees 40 minutes and 41 degrees 40 
minutes. 

Without proper warrant from the Crown (as the 
Lords of Trade, instigated by New York, decided in 1753) 
Royal Commissioners and the Surveyors- General of both 
provinces, in pursuance of an act of both legislatures, 
fixed in 1719 the western boundary station about as 
before (near the present Cochecton). The deputy sur- 
veyors did not run a line from it, but went back 30 
miles southeast to Mahackamack (near the present Port 
Jervis) and then went insufficiently far to a point 120 
chains northeast, and ran a line thence to Hudson River, 
crossing Mount Eve on the way. As this boundary 
line transferred to New Jersey nearly the whole Mini- 
sink patent and a large part of the patent of Wawa- 
yanda, many land owners, as soon as they found that 
out, determined to stop the settlement. A pretext for 
not perfecting the boundary proceedings, as New Jersey 
demanded, was furnished by Allan Jarratt, the New York 
surveyor, who objected to the correctness of the line on 
account of imperfect instruments used for determining 
the 1 Jtitude of the boundary stations. They were, in 
fact, pretty accurately located, and the line gave less 
land to New Jersey than these stations called for, as 
was made known in 1738 by the Chesekook patent line 



and its prolongation. If we can trust Jeffreys' map,- the 
true line between the boundary stations ran about a 
mile and a half north of Florida. 

In the disputed territory, which consisted of about 
400,000 acres, both colonies had settlers and tried to 
exercise Court jurisdiction, muster the militia and col- 
lect taxes. Some people were frightened away from 
their estates and some were robbed, beaten and jailed ; 
and John Herring, an old Quaker, in 1753, had his blood 
drawn with his own walking-stick for indiscreet sur- 
veying in De Kay's neighborhood. But nobody was 
killed except Mrs. Swartout, who died about 1730 in con- 
sequence of eviction from her home. As it was con- 
sidered a limited liability war, one Jersey army was 
routed about 1740, by hearing Major Swartout's son ask, 
"Father, shall we aim at their legs!^'* and receive the 
loud reply, "No, shoot to kill I '' 

According to a report to the proprietors of East 
Jersey, it appears that on the 17tli day of May, 1753, 
"a fourth irruption of the Minisink and Wawayanda 
people was made into New Jersey, consisting of the 
Deputy Sheriff of Orange Co,, and of thirty-one persons 
more, armed with swords, hangers and other weapons 
of war ; whereof the said Deputy and ten more were 
apprehended by the authority of New Jersey and being 
examined for what cause such a number came there 
armed in a hostile manner, the Deputy Sheriff' owned 
he had orders for apprehending sundry magistrates, 
officers and other persons of New Jersey and said he 
had sworn to execute the orders he had received and 
thought it his duty to endeavor it ; the others appi-e- 
hended (except one Henry Wesenar, who escaped after 
he was apprehended and committed) excused theuj- 
selves as men i)ressed to assist the Deputy Sheriff in the 
executing his orders." In June, 1754, William Knap 



deposes that he had heard of some Jerseymen who were 
coming to take Henry Wisner, one of his near neigh- 
bors, and saw the whole company (one of whom he 
thought was Joseph Barton) ride down the hill towards 
Wisner's house. They do not appear to have taken 
Wisner, though some of the Jerseymen at the siege of 
De Kay's house boasted that "they had strength 
enough to take all Groshen and would do it in time." 

According to an uncertain tradition, Wisner built 
in 1758 a grist mill at the place now called Phillipsburg, 
where the Wallkill is a considerable stream and falls 
six feet. Some of this structure is said to be the middle 
portion of Marsh's mill at the southeast end of the dam. 
How he first got land here does not appear, but he 
owned a tract of land on the northwest side of the 
Wallkill in 1760, when he l)ought of Cornelius and 
James . Van Home 580 acres more, and 100 acres 
on the southeast side. Indians visited this neighbor- 
hood, sometimes to sell skins and sometimes to take 
scalps. In the summer of 1758, Samuel Webb was 
killed by them two miles from* Goshen court house 
as he was fetching home his cows. Henry Wisner 
and his brother John were captains in the militia of 
the frontier. As there is a deed signed in 1760 by 
Henry Wisner, and not by his wife, perhaps she was 
then dead. She is probably buried alongside of her' 
husband, but the gravestone has disappeared. 

In 1761, perhaps to escape Indians and Jerseymen, 
Wisner changed his residence to that part of Goshen 
township called the village of Goshen. It was a pecu- 
liar village, consisting of about 1 6 narrow farms on each 
side of the main road for two miles. A number of 
them contained 80 acres and were a mile deep and 660 



feet front. Tlie liousos were near the road, and hence 
near enough together for the early settlers to readily 
assist one another if attacked by Indians. John Stewai d 
owned the first of these village farms on the north- 
westerly side of the West Florida road, and also the 
meadow land opposite. The next farm was that of 
Samuel Smith. It consisted of 70 acres and was bought 
by Wisner for £500. The place where Wisner's house 
stood is midway between the present houses of C. 
Steward and Mrs. D. J. Steward. Here still stands 
the "one mile'' stone from the court house. 

Near that building and the Presbyterian Churcli 
there was a cross-road and the farms had begun to sub- 
divide and form an ordinary village. 

In the Minisink angle Wisner bought in ITdG of 
Oliver De Lancey and David Johnston 840 acres for 
£1,260, and gave them a mortgage for the full amount. 
In 1777 he paid Johnston his moiety of this debt and 
paid into the State Treasury over £723, being the portion, 
with arrear of interest, he owed to Oliver De Lancey, a 
Tory brigadier-general. He also bought 799 acres of 
Oliver De Lancey and John Morin Scott for £100 and 
118 acres of George McNish. 

The New York General Assembly (of which Wisner 
was a member) in December, 1768, declared that the 
late Acts of Parliament imposing duties on the Colonies 
with the sole view and express purpose of raising a 
revenue are utterly subversive of their constitutional 
rights, and that the Act for suspending the legislative 
power of New York on account of its refusal to make 
provision for quartering British troops is unlawful and 
unconstitutional and still more dangerous and alarm- 
ing. This provoked Gov. Moore to dissolve the Assembly 



11 



and special efforts were made to elect a more subser- 
vient one. Voters had to possess a freehold estate of 
£40. A man might vote in several counties if qualified 
in each, and to enable him to do so elections were at 
different times in different counties. The voting was 
by word of mouth and continued several days at the 
few polling places. The inspectors of the poll could 
(and probably at this election did) exercise some unfair- 
ness in admitting votes. The patriotic candidates in 
Orange Co. were John Haring and Henry Wisner, but 
two Tories (as supporters of Government began to be 
called), John De Noyelles and Samuel Gale, were re- 
turned. John Morin Scott, a Van Wyck and two Liv- 
ingstons, the patriotic candidates in New York City, 
were defeated in January, 1769. The new Assembly 
thus got a conservative majority and partially recon- 
ciled itself to the British Government. 

In March, 1769, for the consideration of natural 
affection, Henry Wisner deeded 175 acres at Phillipsburg 
on the northwest side of theWallkill "to Moses Phillips, 
carpenter, and my daughter Sarah, his wife," who had 
married in January, 1768. One-half acre of land, 
at the northwest end of the dam, was retained, but 
the deed conveyed a fulling mill with the raceway and 
enough land to dye and dry the cloth dressed at tlie 
said.mill. 

There was an eminent doctor in New York City 
named John Bard who was interested with Wisner in 
Orange Co. land. He was his bondsman for i;500, when 
Wisner, by license dated April 5, 1769, married Mrs. 
Sarah Waters, He got a farm in Queens Co. , not with 
his first wife, but with this second wife, who was the 



12 

widow of Daniel Waters of Hempstead and the daughter 
of Thomas Cornell. I am indebted for several facts 
concerning her and her children to Isaac S. Waters and 
Mrs. Sarah T. Matthews, her great granddaughter. 
Her eldest son Daniel Waters probably died young. Her 
eldest daughter Mary (afterwards Mrs. Latham) and 
her married daughter Sarah Thorne remained in Queens 
Co. Elizabeth Waters, aged 15, Hannah, and Thomas, 
aged 9, went to Orange Co. Wisner did not bring im- 
mediately his new family under the old roof, but went 
to live in Cornwall precinct, perhaps near Greycourt. 
He was appointed one of the assistant justices of the 
Court of Common Pleas in 1769 and returned to (loshen 
in 1771. This led to the marriage of his son Cabriel to 
his step-daughter Elizabeth about 1772. Soon after, in 
return for £'200 of her mone}'', Wisner conveyed to 
Gabriel an undivided half of 600 acres, situated at 
the outlet of the drowned lands, but the deed was not 
recorded. 

Henry Wisner's eldest son Henry Wisner, Jr., was 
born June 11, 1740, and married Sarah Barnet (not 
Waters) in 1762. His father gave him land in Cornwall 
precinct (probably near Greycourt, and about 1769), 
which he sold about 1772. On New Year's Day, 1774, 
Wisner deeded to this son considerable land on both 
sides of the Wallkill, and also the grist mill. Henry 
Wisner, Jr., lived then and in the days of powder mak- 
ing, probably where Mr. Bauer lives now. In June, 
1775, Moses Phillips paid Wisner t'120 for 8o acres more 
land. 



Commissioners to determine tht^ boundary between 
New York and New Jersey, appointed by the Crown in 
pursuance of Acts of both legislatures, met in New York 
City in 1769. John Morin Scott was the chief manager 
of the New York case, and according to Fernow, Henry 
Wisner and Capt. Samuel J. Holland were New York 
surveyors. The commissioners (six being present) unan- 
imously decided that " the northermost branch " of the 
Jersey deed was the Mahackamack-- creek (now Never- 
sink) which enters the Delaware from the north in 
latitude 41 degrees, 21 minutes, 37 seconds. John Morin 
Scott appeared before the New York General Assembly 
in 1771 in opposition to this settlement, and a letter was 
read by the speaker from Henry Wisner, directed to the 
House, offering his reasons why a law of New York 
should not pass for confirming the said partition line. 
Nevertheless it was ratified, and in 1772 by New Jersey. 
The king approved in 1773, and the present boundary 
line was surveyed in 1774 by James Clinton and Anthony 
Dennis and marked by milestones and blazed trees. 

In 1772 Wisner and William Wickham expended 
money in clearing the outlet of the drowned lands. An 
Act of the New York General Assembly in 1773 pro- 
vided for raising by assessment on the property bene- 
fited £1,500 to repay Wisner and Wickham and do 
further work, and constitutes as trustees these two and 
Samuel Gale, Gilbert Bradner and William AUison. 
Another Act, passed in 1775, adds £500 more, and pro- 
vides in addition for draining swamps and bog meadows 
by cutting large ditches to the Wallkill and clearing out 
tributary brooks. These efforts were partially success- 
ful, but to be completely so needed liberal expenditure 
in blasting a wider and deeper passage through the 
outlet. Commissioners in 1829, however, preferred the 
cheaper plan of providing for the surplus water of flood 



14 

times by digging around the outlet a ditch three miles 
long. But the ditch allured the Wallkill to desert its 
original bed, where is now a series of malarious pools 
amid trees and bushes. The ditch, after some adventures 
with gates and bulkheads, broadened and deepened in 
the yielding soil until it became the river. 

In 17Y3 all patriotic America united to resist tea 
taxation, by means of committees of correspondence. 
They were links in a great chain, and a movement in any 
one was felt throughout. When the throwing of the 
tea into Boston harbor provoked the British Parliament 
to shut up the port, instead of paying for the tea, as 
Dr. Franklin advised, Boston, like the fox that had lost 
his tail, demanded of the continent a general stopping 
of trade with Great Britain. New York refused, but 
requested Massachusetts to call a Continental Congress. 
For this Congress the New York City Committee of Cor- 
respondence, called the Committee of Fifty-One, nomin- 
ated five conservative delegates and refused to nominal e 
John Morin Scott. They feared his patriotic eloquence. 
Patrick Henry's "Give me liberty or give me death I" 
was bettered by Scott : ' ' Who can prize life without 
liberty i! It is a bauble only fit to be thrown away.'' 
The nominees were unanimously elected by the free- 
holders and freemen of the city and the other counties 
were invited to choose the same or delegates of their 
own. 

Wisner was a member of the Orange Co. Commit- 
tee of Correspondence, and it is very likely Scott advised 
him not to accept the city delegates. There were about 
1,000 freeholders in Orange Co., but less than twenty per- 
sons attended the meeting of committeemen, which, on 
August 16th, 1774^ at the house of Stephen Slot (perhaps 
the stone tavern at Sloatsburg), elected Wisner and 
Haring. The instructions were "to consult on proper 



15 

measures to be taken for procuring the redress of our 
grievances." To strengthen Wisner's credentials, he was 
elected again at a meeting of the inhabitants of the 
precincts of Goshen and Cornwall, held at Chester on 
September 3d, to go "to Philadelphia to meet the Gen- 
eral Congress and consult with the rest of the delegates 
on proper measures to be taken with respect to the 
claims made by the British Parliament of taxing Amer- 
ica in all cases whatsoever.'' At this meeting there 
was a majority of only two votes in favor of sending 
a delegate to the Congress, and William Wickham and 
David Matthews wrote to Isaac Low great complaints 
about the election. Low, in a letter dated Philadelphia, 
September 20th, 1774, replied: "Gentlemen — I did not 
receive your favor of 16th instant time enough to 
answer it by return of the post. Mr. Herring has not 
yet made his second appearance ; nor did we imagine 
Mr. Wisner would have had the confideDce to present 
himself as a delegate after knowing the circumstances 
which were communicated to us relative to his election. 
It was therefore thought by my colleagues most advis- 
able to show him your letters on that subject. He was 
not in the least disconcerted, but expressed great satis- 
faction at being treated with so much candor, and in 
return thought himself bound in gratitude to show 
us with equal frankness the certificates on which he 
founded his pretensions, leaving us at full liberty after- 
wards to make such use of the intelligence received 
from you as we thought proper. From the face of his 
certificates, the one signed by Col. [Vincent] Matthews, 
the other by Bathazar De Hart (copies of which I now 
enclose), we were of opinion his election would appear too 
regular to be set aside by anything we could produce to 
the contrary ; especially as the fact we principally relied 
on, as related in a letter to you from Col. Matthews, th^ 



16 

(chairman, might seem to be in a great measure invali- 
dated by his certificate as chairman 'at a meeting of 
the inhabitants of the precincts of Goshen and Corn- 
wall.' And Mr. De Hart's certificate might probably 
pass for those others of the county. Upon the whole 
it was our unanimous opinion that we could not with 
any prospect of success oppose Mr. Wisner's qualifica- 
tions on the evidence we were yet possessed of, but to 
wait for the vouchers which you seem so determined to 
exhibit against him, which we must submit to your dis- 
cj-etion." I am indebted for tliis interesting letter to 
Mr. Nannj^ 

The failure of this attempt to get the Continental 
Congress to exclude Wisner and Haring was important, 
as without Orange County the conservatives Avould 
have controlled the vote of New York, which was 
cast as a unit, and Galloway's plan of accommodation 
with England would have been adopted. It proposed 
an English president-general and a continental con- 
gress, elected for three years by the Colonial Assem- 
blies, to rule America in general concerns in concurrence 
with the British Parliament. But the ultra-patriotic 
party was determined not to trust the right of taxation 
to any power except their own Colonial Assemblies, and 
would pay nothing to the crown, except in response to 
reciuisitions that met their approval. 

Bancroft says of Galloway's plan that "not one 
colony, unless it may have been New York, voted in its 
favor." There never was any vote taken on the adop- 
fion of Galloway's plan, but the vote to cut it out of the 
minutes was practically the same thing, as the intention 
was to mask dissensions by having nothing in the min- 
utes except what was adopted. That five colonies 
voted against cutting it out, and not one of them was 
New York, is shown in the "Magazine of American His- 



tory" for April, ISTO. Bancroft says there were fifty-five 
members of tliis Congress, which is one short. Wisner 
apparently had lodgings at the house of William Will 
at the corner of Second and Arch Streets. 

The Continental Congress recommended the forma- 
tion of vigilance committees to carry into execution the 
American Association it had made, not to import, pur- 
chase or use goods from Great Britain and its dependen- 
cies, until the obnoxious Acts of Parliament were re- 
pealed. These committees were called Committees of 
Inspection or Observation, and in New York City the 
Committee of Sixty. On receiving news of the battle of 
Lexington (April 19th, 1775), the Committee of Sixty 
called a Provincial Congress and the form of a New York 
Association was signed by the freeholders, freemen and 
inhabitants of the city and sent throughout the Colony, 
"to adopt and endeavor to carry into execution what- 
ever measures may be recommended by the Continental 
Congress or resolved upon by our provincial conven- 
tion." This forced the Tories to go on record and they 
proved to be about one-third of the population. The 
refusers of the pledge of allegiance were a majority in 
some places, but few in patriotic Goshen. The name of 
Henry Wisner heads the list of 365 signers on June 8th. 
Committees of Safety and Corrrespondence were formed 
in many places. Henry Wisner was a member in Goshen ; 
Henry Wisner, Jr., and Moses Phillips in Wallkill. In 
New York City this Committee was called .the Committee 
of One Hundred, and in May, 1775, one of its members, 
John Morin Scott, supported Marinus Willett in prevent- 
ing the British troops carrying off with them to Boston 
several cart loads of arms. This irregular government 
of Congresses and Committees boycotted all the refusers 
of the Kevolutionary pledge and finally deprived them 
of their guns, imprisoned Tories jurlged to be dangerous 



18 

and prepared the militia for vv^ar. It did not sup- 
press the regular Government of the Colony, hut 
intimidated it and was a practical declaration of inde- 
pendence, hut only as a temporary expedient, i)reliniin- 
ary to a reconciliation on constitutional principles. 

The Battle of Lexington convinced all patriots of 
the necessity of supplying themselves with plenty of 
gunpowder. The New York Provincial Congress on June 
9th, 1775, offered a premium for one year (afterwards 
extended to January 1st, 1778) of £5 per hundredweight 
on the powder delivered by New York manufacturers to 
the committee of each county. This was in addition to 
the price, which was £25 ($62.50) per hundredweight. 
In small quantities powder usually sold for six York 
shillings a pound. The first New York pow^der manu- 
facturer .was Judge Robert R. Livingston. His mill was 
begun early in May and started late in June, 1775. It 
was situated in Rhinebeck precinct of Dutchess Count}'^, 
near Hudson River, and probably in the present town of 
Red Hook, at the mouth of the Sawkill, where there is 
much water and a forty-foot fall. One of its first jobs 
was the cure of a lot of damaged powder captured at 
Ticonderoga. 

Charcoal was abundant and sulphur sufficient, but 
saltpetre, the chief ingredient of gunpowder, was very 
scarce. In June, 1775, the whole quantity in New York 
City amounted to only 287 pounds. Yet his powder 
maker arrived from Pliiladelphia late in June witii 
180 barrels. This saltpetre was apparently bought by 
Robert R. Livingston, Jr., of a Philadelphia importer, 
though there is a story that the mill's first supply was 
obtained from an agent of the English government 
unaware of tlie purpose. Afterwards 900 pounds came 
from Connecticut and -lOO pounds from Albany. 



19 

Judge Livingston was the owner of one of the 
lai'gest estates in America and lived at Clermont, six 
miles north of his powder mill. He gave his powder 
maker half of the profits of the business for his services. 
He had sent his carpenter to examine the powder mills 
of Pennsylvania, but yet some faults were committed in 
the construction of his mill, and it did not turn out half 
as much powder as expected. It had four mortars and 
twelve pounders. The intention was to dry the powder 
by sunshine, but in October, 1775, it was found neces- 
sary to build a stove room. Livingston died of apoplexy 
December 9th, 1775, and about this time the mill was 
destroyed in some manner not mentioned, but which can 
be guessed. 

Wisner's first powder mill was built about as early 
as Livingston's. It was four miles northwest of Goshen, 
at the place now called Phillipsburg. There is an un- 
certain tradition that it was situated at the third dam 
of a little stream that enters the Wallkill just above the 
bridge on the northwest side of the river. Very little 
saltpetre could be obtained, though Henry Wisner, Jr., 
made some out of stable dirt. 

In January, 177(), the whole quantity of powder in 
New York City was less than three tons, not sufficient 
to act hostilely against the British ships of war in port. 
The State Committee of Safety on "a due consideration 
of the danger of resting the liberties and future happi- 
ness of this large and growing country upon foreign 
supplies which will be extremely precarious and at all 
events very expensive " printed for public distribution 
3,000 copies of a pamphlet on the manufacture of salt- 
petre and gunpowder, the latter part of which was 
written by Henry Wisner. 

On January 27th, a letter was written by John R. 
Livingston (third son of Robert and not yet 21 years 



2(t ■ 

old) that the Rhinebeck mill was again built, but was 
obliged to be idle for want of saltpetre. The Continen- 
tal Congress in February sent him ten tons, part of an 
importation of sixty tons at Philadelphia. 

Up to March 12th, 1T76, Wisner's mill had made 
only 200 pounds of powder. Then a supply of saltpetre 
was procured and before it was exhausted probably ten 
tons came from the Continental Congress. 800 pounds of 
powder were made the first week and 1,100 the second 
week after the above date. 

Wisner's account of how to make powder probably 
represents the method pursued at his mill. His propor- 
tions were 15 pounds of sulphur and 18 pounds of char- 
coal to 100 pounds of saltpetre. The ingredients were 
made as fine as possible and well mixed, and wetted to 
the consistency of dough. Then by power derived from 
a water wheel they were pounded in mortars for twenty 
hours. Graining was done by rubbing the lumps of 
powder through sieves of difiierent finenes ; srounding 
and smoothing by rolling the unshapely grains of pow- 
der in a barrel rapidly turned by the sliaft of the mill. 
' ' The powder must be put in flat trays or dishes and set 
by to dry either in a small room kept warm with a large 
stove, or if the weather be dry, in the sliining of the 
sun." The powder magazine is said to have been on the 
Slauson place, tiien owned by Moses Phillips. 

Henry Wisner, Jr., in a letter of April 24th, 177G, 
mentions the powder mill ' ' belonging to my father and 
self, in which we make 1,000 pounds per week'. The 
weather being very changeable, we are much troubled to 
get it dry ; but have above three tons made, which we 
shall send to Fort Constitution as soon as dry. " As he 
also says, "^ my father being sick I could not leave the 
])()wder mill without great inconvenience," they prob- 
ably had no })ovvder maker to supervise the workmen. 



21 

By the 9th of June, 1776, this mill had made 9,184 
pounds of powder and then probably discontinued 
operations, as the stream supplied insufficient water. 

In March, 177(5, the New York Provincial Congress 
offered for a recommended powder manufacturer in 
each unsupplied county a new inducement of a loan of 
i'1,000 for two years without interest. It also offered 
to new powder manufacturers a premium of £100 for 
each powder mill erected before the 20th day of May, 
and less for later erections ; such mills to be capable of 
making 1,000 pounds a week. Though John R. Living- 
ston had a mill already in Dutchess he was appointed to 
build a second. It was erected in May, 177(5. It was 
probably near the first, which continued in operation. 

Wisner's second powder mill was at Phillipsburg on 
the Wallkill, and probably on the southeast side at the 
end of a raceway (still visible) which started above the 
dam and went to the wheel 200 feet below. One of 
the builders was James Butler. It is first mentioned 
on April 24th, 1776 : " We have got timber and framed 
a powder mill, which will be constructed in such a 
manner as will make much faster.'' It was completed 
and put in operation on May 20th. It made about 1,000 
pounds of powder a week and could reach 1,500 pounds. 
Henry Wisner, Jr., and Major Moses Phillips were the 
nominal owners of the powder mill. They lived in 
Ulster County (which then included Phillipsburg), and 
got the recommendations of the Ulster County Com- 
mittee "as proper persons (having the convenience of 
a good stream, etcV They secured a loan of £150 and 
a premium of £100 from the Provincial Congress. 

In April, 1776, Henry Wisner and John Carpenter 
received the recommendation of the Orange County 
Connnittee as proper persons to build a powder mill " at 



23 

or near John Carpenter's saw-mill, near Greycourt." 
It was on Cromeline Creek, at the place now called 
CraigsviUe, seven miles east of Goshen. When com- 
pleted in May it passed into the hands of John and Col- 
vill Carpenter. They received a loan of i'200 from the 
Provincial Congress in July, 17T<'), when their mill was 
inspected and found going with 18 stampers, a good 
stone house and yard, and many other things necessar}' 
for drying and securing the powder. 

Wisner, in 1777, stated in the New York Provincial 
Congress that he had completed two powder mills in 
May, 177C, upon the encouragement formerly given, 
whereby he was entitled to £2,000 as a loan, instead of 
which he would accept £70 as a gift. It was so ordered. 
Henry Van Rennselaer & Sons of Claverack (then in 
Albany County) applied for a loan, but apparently 
erected no powder mill. 

In April, 1776, committees were appointed in every 
county to erect saltpetre works and purchase at the 
rate of six shillings a pound any saltpetre made in the 
State. In Orange County, this committee consisted of 
William Allison and John Haring. In August, Henry 
Wisner was authorized to purchase saltpetre in Orange 
County, and Henry Wisner, Jr., in Ulster County, for 
the use of the State. There were saltpetre works at 
Goshen erected by James Webster, Daniel Crane and 
U/.al Crane, who, with two other workmen, were engaged 
in carting, attending the tubs, boiling, etc. Some salt- 
petre was made in families, and a man made fourteen 
pounds out of three bushels of earth. 

There came to Wisner's mill a letter fiom Indians 
of tho Susquehanna dated June 4th, 1776, beginning : 
"Brother: We received your letter with joy, wherein 
you manifest your great satisfaction with our disj^osi- 
tion to lie still and bear no part in your disputes ; this is 



:23 

our determination. We are concerned for your welfare 
and lament your distressed circumstances. We return 
you thankcj that in the midst of your troubles you re- 
member us still and are devising means to supply our 
wants, both of powder and goods. We thank you for 
the sample of powder you sent us ; we judge the powder 
is good. You inform us that you have erected powder 
works and that you hope shortly to be able to supply 
us. We wish you success and bid you welcome to trade 
with us both in powder and goods. We hope you will 
bring powder, lead and flints, as soon as you can ; for if 
we do not find these we shall not have any skins to buy 
goods with in the fall.'' The New York Provincial 
Congress ordered this letter answered with a present 
of powder, lead and flints, being anxious to keep the 
Indians from espousing the cause of the king. 

The Americans began the Revolutionary War, not 
for secession, but to secure their rights in the British 
Empire, which they regarded as the world's bulwark 
against Popery and despotism. They gloried in the 
name of Englishmen, and preferred, as the Canadians do 
now, a constitutional monarchy to republican institu- 
tions. But after January 8th, 1776, America was rap- 
idly converted to independence and democracy by the 
forcible arguments of Paine's ' ' Common Sense. " I have a 
copy of the first edition, with the following letter written 
on the margin of the first page : "Sir, I have only to 
ask the favor of you to read this pamphlet, consulting 
Mr. Scott and such of the Committee of Safety as you 
think jDroper, particularly Orange and Ulster, and let 
me know their and 3^our opinion of the general spirit of 
it. I would have wrote a letter on the subject, but the 
bearer is waiting. Henry Wisner, at Philadelphia. To 
John McKesson, at New York." Wisner, who was then 
a member of the Second Continental Congress, must 



2A 

have read with great satisfaction Paine's abuse of mon- 
archy, for according to his intimate ac([uaintance, Judge 
William Thompson, he "seemed to possess from his 
ancestors a strong predilection for republican institu- 
tions." The Committee of Safety mentioned was a 
State body composed of members of the New York Pro- 
vincial Congress, exercising its authority between the 
sessions. At a later period Wisner was a member of it. 
John Morin Scott, alarmed at the boldness of "Common 
Sense," suggested a small private meeting in the evening 
for the purpose of writing an answer. They accord- 
ingly met^ and McKesson read the pamphlet through, 
and found it unanswerable. 

The Second Continental Congress made two enact- 
ments of independence in the same words. The first 
was on July 2d, and The Pennsylvania Eveuiny Post 
then announced, "This day the Continental Congress 
declared the United Colonies Free and Independent 
States." All the New York members refused to join in 
tho vote, as it was considered inconsistent with their 
instructions from the convention that had elected 
them. But this vote of July 2d, by settling the question 
oC independence, nullified the instructions. Wisner said 
to the New York Legislatuie in 17S1 in defence of 
James Duane: "Our insti'uctions from our constituents 
were particularly pointi'd towards bringing about a 
reconciliation with Gieat Biitairi agieeably to the Eng- 
lish Constitution. While that object appeared to be 
within the reach of our hope, Mr. DuaiK^ was a faithful 
advocate of it. When it was given up he appeared to 
me to be as faithful an advocate for the freedom and 
independence of the United States." 

Congress met on Thursday, July 4th, at !> o'clock, 
and soon resolved itself into a committee of the whole 
to continue its work of amending the language of the 



25 

Declaration that Jefferson had reported. The chair was 
occupied by Harrison, whom John Adams calls "an 
indolent, luxurious, heavy gentleman of no use in Con- 
gress or Committee." Jefferson left the defense of the 
Declaration to John Adams and sat silent, "writhing a 
little," he says, "under the acrimonious criticisms." In 
the three days' debate one-third of his draft was stricken 
out, and Dr. Franklin consoled him with the story of 
John Thompson's sign. A curious amendment was 
striking out the language in which independence was 
enacted in the Jeffersonian draft, and inserting instead 
of it the resolution respecting independency, which had 
been passed on July 2d, and had not been authentically 
published, thus manifesting the intention of Congress 
to reject that day as Independence Day. 

The weather on the fourth was not very hot (the 
thermometer reaching only 76), but the members were 
annoyed by insects of the air and perhaps there was no 
adjoui'nment for a meal. Lossing, who is followed by 
Chamberlain and Buchanan, says the Declaration passed 
at 2 o'clock. But I can find no evidence of this, and 
Bancroft says nothing on the subject. As the Declara- 
tion is not mentioned in The Pennsylvania Evening 
Post of July 4th, Jefferson's statement is probably 
nearer correct, that it passed in the evening. 

Perhaps it was so wearisome a day's work that the 
Report to the regular session was not a fair copy of the 
Declaration as amended, but was merely a reading of 
the Jeffersonian draft, erased and interlined and enlarged 
to suit the motions that had prevailed in the Committee 
of the Whole. If the Jeffersonian draft and the Declara- 
tion reported to the regular session were two distinct 
papers, the difficulty of accounting for their loss is 
doubled. It is particularly hard to believe, if the 
Declaration adopted was a fair copy properly written 



26 

out, that any American would have been reckless and 
shameless enough to destroy it, as in fact has been done. 

In the regular session the Declaration did not receive 
the vote of the New Yorkers, who prudently waited for 
new instructions. But Wisner personally voted for it, 
according to Thomas McKean, who wrote in 1814 of 
himself and Wisner: "both were present in Congress 
on the 4tli of July, and voted for Independence." 
McKean was a judge and consequently accustomed to 
weigh his words, and he was not interested in Wisner, 
and his testimony was deliberate and given four times, 
as mentioned in 1878. As the vote of each colony 
counted for one on the side of its majority, Wisner 's 
vote for Independence was sentimental rather than 
ettective, and it is more astonishing that we have such 
good evidence of it tlian that we have so little. For 
most of the voters of Independence we have no positive 
evidence. None are named in the Journals of Congress 
and the members of Congress were pledged to keep 
secret everything not published by the authority of the 
House. 

The list of 40 voters of Independence I published in 
18Y8 retained as many of the signers from elsewhere 
than New York as possible. Eead, of Delaware, is well 
knoAvn to have voted against Independence ; and I dis- 
covered that Hooper did also, by the following reasoning: 
John Adams, in a letter dated June 22d, 1819, says: " The 
unanimity of the States finally depended on the vote of 
Joseph Hewes, and was finally determined by him.'" 
As there were three North Carolinians, tliis shows that 
Hooper and Penn took opposite sides. A letter of 
Hewes' (in Force's "American Archives"), dated July 8th, 
177G, says : " My friend Penn came time enough to give 
his vote for Independence." Jefferson, in a letter dated 



27 

July 9th, 1817, says : " Now you remember as well as I do, 
that we had not a greater Tory in Congress than 
Hooper.'' 

It is well known that Robert Morris was opposed to de- 
claring independence, and withdrew from the vote, and 
that R. H. Lee and Wythe were absent from Philadelphia; 
and that Rush, Clymer, Smith, Taylor, Ross, Carroll, 
Cliase and Thornton were not members of Congress 
when the vote was taken. 

Of non-signers George Clinton is asserted to have 
voted for Independence, by Washington Irving, Lossiiig. 
Dawson, Ruttenber, Stone, Roberts, and other writers, 
but unfortunately this evidence is not contemporary. 
Scharf asserts that Rogers, of Maryland, voted for Inde- 
pendence, but his not being re-elected to Congress is an 
indication to the contrary. 

As soon as the Declaration passed in regular session 
it was ordered to be authenticated and printed, and that 
the committee that prepared it superintend and correct 
the press. Then Congress dropped into humbler busi- 
ness, and empowered Mr. Wisner to send a man to 
Orange County for a sample of flint stone. 

The Declaration was printed, probably, on the morn- 
ing of July 5th. Dunlap's broadside has "Signed by 
order and in behalf of the Congress. John Hancock, 
President. Attest, Charles Thomson, Secretary.'' Their 
printed signatures imply that their names were in the 
printer's copy, but not necessarily autographic. The 
printed copy was then wafered in the Rough Journal in 
a blank space Thomson had left for it, on July 4th. (See 
Buchanan's McKean Genealogy, 1890.) No mention 
is made, either in the Rough Journal or in the Smooth 
Journal, of the members signing the Declaration, and in 
the Smooth Journal the Declaration is written without 
signatures. 



28 

John Adams, in a letter to Samuel Chase on July 9th, 
1776, said : " As soon as an American Seal is prepared, I 
conjecture the Declaration will be subscribed by all the 
members, which will give you the opportunity you wish 
for of transmitting your name among the votaries of 
Independence/' These facts and the positive statement 
of McKean that the members did not sign on the 4th, 
have led almost all investigators to reject the state- 
ments made by Jefferson and Adams in their old age 
that the members signed on the 4th, as a mistake based 
on tlie printed journals of Congress, wherein the sign- 
ing of the parchment Declaration on August 2d, is put 
under July 4th. The conflicting evidence on this point 
can, however, be reconciled by conjecturing that after 
the adjournment of Congress, on July 4th, McKean was 
absent from the room, and the members of the voting 
colonies present, except Dickinson, signed the Declara- 
tion informally by a spontaneous patriotic impulse. 

Jefferson, in his Autobiography, and in a letter 
dated May 12th, 1811>, states that the New York members 
signed on July 15th, the paper copy of the Declaration. 
As no contemporary contradicts this, we ought not to 
doubt his word, though it is usual to do so. In fact, it 
was the best way of manifesting the belated adhesion of 
New York to the cause of United Independence. More- 
over, Paul Ford has a copy of Aitken's Vol. 2 of the 
Journals of Congress, believed to have belonged to 
Charles Thomson, in which is written in what is 
thought, by Ford and other experts, to be his handwrit- 
ing, opposite the names of William Floyd, Philip 
Livingston and Francis Lewis, "signed July 15.'' Wisner 
must have signed then, if he refrained from signing on 
July 4th. 

The secret journal of Congress has "July ll>th, 1776, 
Resolved, that the Declaration passed on the 4th be 



30 

fairly engrossed on parchment, and with the title and 
style of ' The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen 
United States of America,' and that the same, when 
engrossed, be signed by every member of Congress." 
Wisner left Philadelphia about this time (probably two 
days before) and never returned. 

Wisner received a letter dated at Newton, N, J., 
July 9th, 1776, fi'om his "loving and affectionate cousin, 
Joseph Barton," stating that an Indian war was ex- 
pected, and begging for a little powder, as his neighbors 
had nothing but axes or sticks to fight with, also say- 
ing that Flint Island, in the drowned land, abounded in 
excellent gunfiints, and offering to undertake working 
a good lead mine there was at Neponah. "Sir, it gives 
a great turn to the minds of our people, declaring our 
independence. Now we know what to depend on. For 
my part I have been at a great stand. I could hardly 
own the King and fight against him at the same time ; 
but now these matters are cleared up. Heart and hand 
shall move together." He or some other of the 
same name afterwards became Lieutenant-Colonel of 
New Jersey Tory Volunteers. 

Wisner's powder was usually taken in wagons twenty 
miles to New Windsor and shipped there. Thus on May 
23d, 1776, 22 barrels and 4 half-barrels of powder 
were put on board the schooner "Resolution" by 
Henry Wisner, Esq., on account the Continental Con- 
gress, addressed to Philip V. Rennselaer, of Albany, un- 
der guard of Lieutenant Peter Elsworth. In October 
1776, Moses Phillips took powder to General Washing- 
ton, at Kingsbridge, and, on account of the enemy's 
ships in the Hudson, was compelled to leave the vessel 
at Peekskill and proceed by land. 

The New York Provincial Congress answered 
Wisner's request for a guard for his first powder miU 



30 

by referring him to General Washington ; but in July, 

1776, ordered a guard of a sergeant and six privates for 
Livingston's mill ; and in May, 1777, ordered to be 
raised three companies of one lieutenant, three sergeants 
and twenty-four privates to guard the powder mills of 
Rhinebeck, Wallkill and Cornwall precincts under the 
command of the proprietors. 

Henry Wisner, Jr., was usually in charge at Phillips- 
burg, but he appears to have been absent sometime in 

1777, as Henry Wisner's memorandum book (possessed 
by Mr. Nanny) has the following entry: "I have taken 
three hundred and sixt}^ dollars to go to Boston. — Henry 
Wisner, Jr." Command of soldiers implies some com- 
mission and military title, I find Henry Wisner called 
Major in 1777, and a commission to Henry Wisner, Jr., 
as Major, is said to have been in existence until recently, 
by Captain Lewis S. Wisner, his great-grandson, to 
whom I am indebted for valuable information and the 
use of many family papers. The society of Sons of the 
Revolution considers that the Lieut. -Col. Henry Wisner 
of Hathorn's regiment was the son of Capt. John Wisner. 

Powder mills in those days had usually short lives. 
How long the Craigsville mill continued in operation 
does not appear. A receipt given by John Carpenter to 
Henry Wisner on June 9th, 1777, for i;370 for saltpetre 
purchased for the State of New York, and another on 
July 10th, for £100, may indicate that Carpenter soon 
changed his business from powder to saltpetre. In 
June, 1777, Tories stole 900 pounds of Livingston's 
powder, apparently reaching the mill by boat. In 
October his mills were destroyed by the British under 
Gen. Vaughan, during Clinton's raid uj) the Hudson to 
help Burgoyne. 

In January, 1778, Wisner stated to the New York 
Provincial Convention that he had sundry accounts with 



31 

the State for saltpetre, and also for bounty on gun- 
powder, and that the Auditor-General objected to them. 
A committee appointed to examine them reported that 
that part of the saltpetre which Mr. Wisner hath pur- 
chased for the use of this State, consisting of 2,4 20| 
pounds, is unattended with vouchers of its being made 
of materials collected within this State, but, neverthe- 
less, from the local situation of the several manufact- 
urers, the Committee are satisfied that it was so made ; 
that as to the gunpowder manufactured at Mr. Wisner's 
mills, it appears that near 2,000 weight hath been 
delivered to the order of the Convention of this State, 
and that the remainder was delivered to the several 
orders of General Washington and General Schuyler ; 
that the said powder, agreeable to a resolution of Provin- 
cial Congress, should have been delivered to the Com- 
mittee of the respective counties where it was manu- 
factured, but that the aforesaid applications and orders 
prevented a compliance therewith ; that Mr. Wisner's 
answer to the demands of the Generals was highly 
expedient, as a speedy supply of that article was indis- 
pensably necessai-y to promote the public good ; and 
that he has fully complied with the spirit of the said 
resolution. 

Gen. Washington considered it of vital importance 
to keep the British below the Highlands of the Hudson. 
Wisner was on a secret committee (Robert Yates, chair- 
man) empowered to take private property for this pur- 
pose. Several vessels were sunk near Fort Washington, 
l)ut the English ships ran past on October 9th, 1776, 
with no great loss from the shore batteries. They pro- 
ceeded but a short distance up the river and allowed 
time to fortify the Highlands ; in doing which, the 
committee had to incur personal liability, as their ex- 
penses far exceeded the sum furnished by the Provincial 



32 

Congress. Wisner wrote on October 18th: *'The hill at 
the north side of Peekskill [Gallows Hill | is so situated 
with the road winding along the side of it, that ten men on 
the top, by throwing down stones might prevent 10,000 
passing. I went on top this morning and rolled some 
stones down: it made a most violent appearance: some 
of them sprang twenty feet high. I believe nothing more 
need be done than to heap great quantities of stone at 
the different places where the troops must pass, if they 
attempt penetrating the mountains." He went over the 
river the same day^ to Fort Montgomery and brought 
Engineer ]\Iachin to Peekskill, and they agreed that to 
build fortifications there "would be labor badly spent 
and worse than lost." 

On November 2d, the State Committee of Safety 
authorized Henry Wisner and Gen. James Clinton to 
mount cannon and erect small works on the banks of 
the Hudson to annoy the enemy's ships if they at- 
tempted to pass. 

Early in November, Gilbert Livingston, with the co- 
operation of Henry Wisner, Jr., brought down the 
river from Poughkeepsie a chain, most of which had 
been made for the i-iver Sorel. Livingston and Henry 
Wisner, Sr., with the assistance of Captain Hazel wood, 
stretched it across the Hudson from the north chop of 
Poplopen's Kill to Anthony's Nose— 1,800 feet. It was 
made of iron 24 inches thick, bat the combined force 
of the current and the ebb-tide against the bulk of the 
logs by which it was supported heajied up the water 
and quickly broke a swivel, and that being mended, the 
chain soon })arted again by breaking a clevis. 

Late in November, Wisner and Livingstou sounded 
the river from Stony Point tbrough the Highlands, and 
found the main channel nowhere less than 80 feet deep, 



88 

except near Polopel's Island, and gave their opinion that 
that was the best place for sunken obstructions. They 
were undertaken bu-t never completed. 

On November 30th Wisner was in Goshen and found 
several of his neighbors had collected 450 cattle to be 
salted for the use of the American army. Buying beef 
and fat cattle were among Wisner's minor patriotic 
activities. He wrote to the State Committee of Safety 
on December 24th, 1776, from Orang^town: " A large 
number of cattle in Orange have lately been bought up 
for the Philadelphia market, which, I am afraid, will 
cause a scarcity of beef. I beg your advice whether it 
will not be best to stop the cattle for the use of the 
army. I am determined to stop them until I hear from 
you.'' 

About this time the militia of Westchester, Dutchess 
and Albany Counties were to be called out to defend the 
passes in the Highlands on the east side of the Hudson, 
and the New York Convention resolved that they be 
stationed at such posts and obey such orders as they 
shall from time to time receive from Eobert R. Living- 
ston, Henry Wisner and Zephaniah Piatt, who are also 
empowered to discharge from the militia such mechanics 
as the public service or the necessity of the inhabitants 
may render expedient. It is not known that Wisner 
was ever in active military service, but I find him called 
Colonel in 17S1. 

Machin had charge of the iron chain during the 
winter, and as soon as the river was open in the spring 
of 1777, he re-stretched it, reduced the amount of sup- 
porting timber and anchored it to sunken cribs of stone. 
To blunt the shock of a ship in full sail before it could 
come on the chain, bulky obstructions of wood had been 
originally put in front of it, but Machin replaced them, 
perhaps by a small chain loosely stretched, to which 

L.ofC, 



M 

logs were fastened at their ends. This barricade is said 
to have cost $250,000. The British fleet did not dare to 
force it under the fire of shore batteries and forts, and 
the five ships of war behind it, which had been procured 
by a committee of which Wisner was chairman. But 
on October 6th, as Forts Chnton and Montgomery, by 
error of Gen. Putnam, were garrisoned by only GOO men, 
they were carried at nightfall by British and Tory assault 
in the rear. Col. William Allison and Micah Allison 
were in Fort Montgomery; the fp-ther was captured and 
the son was slain. 

According to Simms, Machin managed a cannon in 
Fort Montgomery effectively. He received a bullet in 
his breast, and, joining in the retreat, asked for help of a 
soldier, who replied, "It is a damned good fellow who 
can help himself." Like Gov. Clinton and some others 
he clambered down the rocks to the river side and es- 
caped by boat behind the barricade, which paid for itself 
by saving them from the British fleet. Mofly Pitcher 
and Gen. James Clinton escaped by land from Fort 
Clinton. Bancroft erroneously puts him in Fort Mont- 
gomery. One of the American w^ar vessels was cap- 
tured and four were burned by their crews. After 
ineffectual attempts the next day to break the great 
chain by running their ships upon it, the British cut 
it by filing. It was taken to England and sent to Gib- 
raltar. When the British hoard of the sui-render of 
Burgoynethey retreated to New York City, having done 
immense damage. 

In January, 1778, Wisner was on a committee to 
confer with Gen. Putnam relative to constructing works 
for the defense of the passes in the Highlands, and in 
February on a committee to assist Gen. Gates in obtain- 
ing artificers and materials for accomplishing tlie se- 
curity of Hudson's river. Wisner concurred in the wise 



selection of West Point as the best position to fortify, 
and advanced considerable sums and contracted debts in 
making it an American Gibraltar, A chain was made 
at the Sterling Iron Works of 2^-in. square bar iron, and 
it was carted in sections to New Windsor, where it was 
put together, fastened by staples across logs and floated 
down the river. It reached West Point in April and was 
secured in its proper place, where the river is 1,500 feet 
wide. In front of the chain was put a wooden boom. 
The river was commanded by Fort Arnold and shore 
l)atteries. To guard against a land attack a strong fort 
was erected in the rear, called Fort Putnam, for CoJ. 
Rufus Putnam, whose regiment built it. The engineers 
employed were Radiere, Machin and Kosciuszko. The 
formidable preparations thus made for defense and the 
sufficient garrison kept there deterred the British from 
attack, except by corrupting Gen. Arnold. 

Wisner's only sister married John Allison, who was 
apparently the uncle of Col. William Allison. One of 
his sons, Henry Allison, occupied in 1777 a farm owned 
by Wisner. Another of his farms was occupied by his 
son-in-laAv, John Denton. An adjoining farm of 1,000 
acres belonging to him west of Goshen township was 
occupied by his son Gabriel Wisner. Gabriel Wisner 
had three children, Sarah, born in 1773, Henry, in 1777, 
and Gabriel, in 1779, after his father's death. Gabriel 
Wisner was not Lieut. -Colonel, as stated in the "Life 
of Brant.'' When he went to the battle of Minisink his 
wife and children were at his father's house. Thomas 
Waters, 19 years old, had charge of the horses used to 
convey some of the Goshen volunteers to the fatal field, 
and he brought the horses back to Goshen. A black 
nurse girl had Gabriel's son Henry out on the place 
when Gabriel's horse came trotting in the yard, which 
was the first intimation to the family of the defeat. 



86 

In the State Senate in 1779, Wisner voted for John 
Morin Scott's Attainder and Confiscation Act, against 
all New Yorkers who adhered to the King. It con- 
victed by name, without trial, the more prominent Tories, 
especially those of large estate, including a few women, 
clergymen, Britons and absentees. In November Wisner 
bought a New Jersey confiscated Tory estate of 200 
acres for £3,778 depreciated Continental money. 

The last survivor of Wisner's powder mills (probably 
the second) was in operation as late as March, 1781, 
when Wisner was paid £800, to be expended for sulphur 
and saltpetre and on account for manufacturing gun- 
l)0wder for the use of the State. Shortly after, it is said 
that his mill was destroyed by fire and his moderate 
fortune crippled beyond recovery. In November, 1781, 
there was reported to the Legislature a total want of 
gunpowder in the State. Luckily the war was about 
over. 

"In the year 1782, while the American Army was 
lyijig on the bank of the Hudson, I kept a classical 
school in Goshen. I tliere completed two small elemen- 
tary books for teaching the English language.'' These 
were Noah Webster's famous spelling book and an Eng- 
lish grammar. Henry Gabiiel vVisner attended this 
school. He became a prominent lawyer and was the 
father of Mrs. Ambrose S. Murray, to whom lam much 
indebted for traditions and family documents. AVebster 
before publishing, endeavored to get copyright laws 
passed, and in the autumn of 1782 he called on Governor 
Livingston in Trenton with the following lettci-, which 
I find in Ruttenber and Clark : 



37 

*■ ' Sir: — The bcarur, Mr. Noah Webster, luis taug'ht a grammar scliool 
lor some time past iu this place, mucli to the satisfaction of l)is employers, 
lie is now doing some business in the literarj^ way, wiiich will, in the 
opinion of good judges, be of great service to posterity. He being a 
stranger in New Jersey may stand in need of assistance of some gentlemen 
with whom you are acquainted. He is a young gentleman whose moral 
as well as political character is such as will render him worthy of your 
notice. Any favor which you may do him will be serving the public and 
acce]it('d as a favor done yoin- friend and very ]iuml)le servant, 

Henry Wisner. " 

In 1784 Wisner was chosen one of the Regents of the 
University. He exerted himself to have an Academy 
erected in Goshen by subscription, on land anciently 
given for that purpose. The building was nearly com- 
pleted in 1784:, but work on it stopped for a few years by 
reason of the very great scarcity of cash in Goshen. A 
lottery was proposed by Wisner and others and possibly 
resorted to. The school was finally opened as Farmers' 
Hall Academy. Wisner's name appears in the charter, 
dated a few days after his death. 

Wisner continued to serve as Justice of the Peace 
to the end of his life. He acted as appraiser of the value 
of confiscated land. He had rather high ideas of the 
value of land and bought it too freely. He also got into 
pecuniary troubles in connection with draining the 
drowned lands. In February, 1786, he mortgaged his 
residence for £387, 1 3s to William Beekman. On April 
14th, 1787, perhaps in consequence of a suit that William 
Wickham began against him, he conveyed to his son 
Henry all his lands in the County of Ulster and several 
pieces in the County of Orange. On January 14th, 1788, 
the remainder of his property was sold by the sheriff on 
an execution. Gabriel Wisner's widow bought (probably 
for a trifling sum) two negroes, Saul and Ben, and two 
cows. These purchases, which were left in Henry Wis- 
ner's possession till his death, were made to secure a 
claim she had against Wisner for an undivided half of 



3P 

GOO acres situated at the outlet of the drowned lauds. 
At this public vendue Henry Wisuer, Jr., bought all the 
Orange Co. land liable to the execution, all the farm-ng 
utensils, all the household furniture, pair of oxen, four 
cows, horse, a negro man Tom, and two small negro 
sisters, Lana and Mary, for trifling sums, for the pur- 
poses of securing a debt due him of £827, and likewise 
to protect himself for having been his father's security 
for large sums. 

After parting with his property Wisner does not 
soem to have been troubled by his creditors, and Wick- 
hani appears to have proceeded no further against him. 
The land that Henry Wisner, Jr., got by his father's 
deed and at the vendue was, after his father's death, 
disposed of for the benefit of his father's creditors, and 
provision was made for transferring 800 acres at the 
outlet to Gabriel's children. 

Hannah Waters and Thomas Waters, having mar- 
ried and left Wisner's house, Gabriel's widow followed 
in July, 1789 (marrying Coe Gale), and Wisner's family 
was reduced to his second wife and his three grand- 
cliildren, who w^ere also her grandchildten. James 
Everett, the Surrogate of Orange Co., husband of 
Hannah Waters, lived on the East Florida road, nearly 
a mile from Goshen Court House. Wisner was calling 
at his house and complained of being unwell, and strode 
directly across the meadows to his own house on the 
West Florida road. He took to his bed, called in Dr. 
Klnier (and probably Dr. Austin ) and died in a few days, 
perhaps of pneumonia. 

He was buried in Hopper Hill Cemetery at Phillii)s 
burg, which consists of an acre of land given by him to 
the Goshen Piesbyterian Cliiuch for a free l)urying 
ground. A gravestone ol led sandstone bears the fol- 
lowing inscription ': 



Sacred 

to the Memory of 

HENRY WISNER, Esq., 

who departed this life 

March 4th, 1790, in the 70th 

year of his age. 



A devoted friend to 

the hberties of his 

country. 



6 1905 



1 

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